Podcast – Question Time With Tom Dailly

ARG was lucky enough to have a chat with Tom Dailly in our first “question time”.

Readers were encouraged to send questions in, which we then asked Tom within the interview.

This was the first of many of these, as we attempt to get you (the readers) more involved.

Question Time With Tom Dailly

ARG: I’m here at the Anakie Trial Track today with Tom Dailly for the first of our question time podcasts. We’ve been lucky enough for Tom to join us today and thanks a lot to everybody for the questions that were written into the site. I’ll start off with the question from Michael Fox seeing as we are at the Anakie Trial Track, he wrote in to ask whether the track will actually open again to the public at any stage?

Tom Dailly: Probably not, no.

ARG: Not at all? No?

Tom: No, it’s a bit busy these days with too many dogs.

ARG: Too many dogs. Breaking in quite a few how many have you got breaking in at the moment?

Tom: We normally break 30 at a time.

ARG: And how many have you got in work?

Tom: About 90.

ARG: Well, okay so it keeps you very busy. We also had another one written in from Calvin Russell asking if you have got any youngsters in the same class as Bekim or Heston Bale currently coming through?

Tom: It’s a bit of a question now. The speed those two dogs displayed were sort of – they were on the freak side. We’ve got some youngsters that can run but not up to those two classes, no.

ARG: Who would be one to look out for would you suggest?

Tom: Allen Deed, Dyna Kayla and a couple of other youngsters. I haven’t checked their names yet. They’re still a bit of a way off racing.

ARG: How’d he pull up after last Saturday night at Cannington, he took a bit of a nasty fall Allen Deed.

Tom: Yeah, he’s as good as gold.

ARG: He was lobbing in a spot where he was going to be pretty hard to beat I would have thought and then just – they all came down on top of him.

Tom: Yeah, it was similar to Heston Bale at the first turn. It was a bit – I just shut my eyes for a couple of seconds, I thought he might have been in a bit of trouble but he has pulled up fine so, it’s the main thing.

ARG: From Mathew Clark, “Who’s the favourite dog that you’ve had around the place?”

Tom: A lot of dogs, I don’t like to single them out but probably two spring to mind. Pororoca, he was just a flying machine and Sun Hero was the hardest chaser that we have ever had and just every time he ran, he did exactly what he was supposed to do, he never put in a bad race and chased his heart out.

ARG: So who would have been the fastest out of all the ones that have been through your hands?

Tom: Bekim Bale, Heston Bale and Pororoca.

ARG: And Allen Deed or the young stayer Dyna Kayla the best dogs currently in the Kennels.

Tom: Yeah, I would say so yes.

ARG: Now a bit of a different one, this is more for people that are out there learning and wanting advice, a good question from Chris Cocking. Feeding and supplements, is there any advice for people starting out. What do you advise feeding and supplement wise?

Tom: I would just feed basically, just meat and chicken and wholemeal bread and a multi-vitamin. I think what a lot of young trainers do is go a bit overboard with the supplements so I think the less you give them the less chance you’ve got of harming the dog. It’s just if the dog is fit and healthy and just you see it gets a balanced diet he should be alright.

ARG: From David Choules, “The move from Perth all those years ago has been good to you guys, with two other brothers being involved in the industry, who would you say is the best dog man out of all of you or did you all bring something different to the table?”

Tom: I don’t think there’s much between – George and I work as a team anyway so yeah, nothing much between us but we have all learned from our father and different trainers, so not much between us at all.

ARG: Okay, and what do you do with chasers that if the going gets tough, they wander a bit in their races. You seem to have an outstanding record of getting high percentages to chase, even after bumps and things not going their way.

Tom: There are a number of different tricks and different things you have to do with them, not each dog is the same, so you just have to basically work out what is needed. A lot of dogs just need a bit of confidence to get some runs where they can get their confidence not get knocked about. Other dogs just need a few other different things and it is probably a question – I could talk for hours at a time, to be honest.

ARG: Okay, put simply what would an easy and more narrowed down answer, why do you think your stock seem to chase so consistently?

Tom: Probably they’re fit and they don’t have a number of little niggling injuries. I think free galloping has got a lot to do with it. When they free gallop they don’t sort of pick up a lot of niggling injuries and then they seem to be able to race for a bit longer, yeah.

ARG: Now this is in from Duncan Stearn from out site actually, what do you think of bend starts over both the short course and the middle distances?

Tom: If you have to have those starts, those races there is not much you can do about bend starts. They are very hit and miss. You’re in luck of the gods and what’s going to happen to you most of the time. So if there is money to be made and the dogs can get around safely enough it is fair enough. But it is – we don’t do a lot of racing over the short courses and all the bends but then again having said that if you have 600 metre race on a bend or something like that’s worth money, and I don’t find a lot of dogs getting injured out of it but they – can find a lot of trouble really.

ARG: Yeah, from Rob Sheeley, “What would you be doing if you weren’t training the greyhounds?

Tom: Nobody else would employ me so I have to continue doing this. Laughs.

ARG: Alright, now you have got three in tomorrow night. You’ve got Hawk Alone and Lektra Grey running around in the Rookie Rebel, any chance out of those two?

Tom: They will find it hard, especially doing off the track a bit, you see Xylia Allen and Bookkeeper and the class of dogs like that. If Hawk Alone through a sheer amount of luck happened to ping and get to the front and there is a bit of trouble behind him it would be a bit of a chance but I think both dogs will find it hard to win.

ARG: It’s hard to be confident going to such good races, as the Zoom top with Dyna Kayla will have to be some sort of chance?

Tom: Yeah, she’s stepping up in grade. She is up against the big boys this week so, that would be interesting but she probably couldn’t do any more than what she has done in the last few weeks and I think she is drawn nicely too to get clear early so, if she can get a clear run early it is going to be interesting to see how she does match it with this good starts at the moment or when the season starts so, it is going to be interesting.

ARG: Alright and we are going to end with a bit of humour from John Dart, are you Tom Dailly because you look like George?

Tom: Yeah, I will tell you what I’m getting a bit dementia these days, sometimes I don’t really know.

ARG: Thanks a lot for your time mate and good luck tomorrow night. I will be on course, so look forward to seeing you then.